Optimizing The Performance Of Your VPN

VPNs are quite common today. Corporate users have been using VPNs for the better part of a decade, but everyday users have started using it just as much today. However, people suffer from many issues while using VPNs. The most common doubt people have in mind before going for a VPN is if their internet speed would be affected or they would face more connection drops. These do happen at times while using a VPN, but you can make sure that they do not happen. Here are 5 ways to optimize the performance of your VPN.

5 Ways to Optimize the Performance of your VPN

Your VPN’s performance depends on how you set it up and how you use it. Tweaking a few things can help you improve your VPN’s performance drastically. Here are 5 of those tweaks:

Change protocol for reducing connection time

Reducing the time it takes to connect to the website you wish to connect to is a way to increase your internet speed. Changing your VPN protocol or changing its default address can help you with that. While changing the default address in the config files of your VPN might seem a little complicated to many people, changing the protocol is quite simple. Some protocols like OpenVPN offer better security but reduce internet speed due to the overhead of encryption. If security is not your top priority and you wish to use VPN for things like bypassing geo-restriction for streaming, then choosing L2TP/IPSec can yield better results.

Changing Servers for better Connection Gateways

VPNs offer servers in a lot of locations. Choosing the fastest server can help improve your VPN performance a lot. Faster servers are not simply those that are nearer to your location and require fewer hops for you to connect to them. Faster servers are those that need the least number of hops to connect you to your destination address. Simply open command prompt and type “ping destination_address” to find out the time required for the job. Smaller ping values indicate faster servers.

Disable Firewall for Stable Connections

Your resident system protection services can interfere with the working of your VPN. They can cause your VPN to drop the connection every few minutes for a few seconds. This can cause problems if you wish to be connected continuously to download or stream something. Disable the firewalls and other such tools to optimize the performance of your VPN.

Go for a Wired Connection

Like Firewalls, Wi-Fi routers can severely impede the working of your VPN. In case you want a high-speed connection for an important task plug-in the LAN cable to your system to take your Wi-Fi router out of the picture. This is known to improve connection speeds.

Minimize DNS poisoning

Some countries like China are known to block or misdirect internet traffic related to certain services. Many people opt for sending their DNS packets via third-parties, but that is not helpful. This is because it can result in many unwanted parties snooping on your DNS requests and invade your privacy. To prevent DNS poisoning, start your VPN service before opening an IM service or web browser. Check with your VPN provider for instructions to prevent DNS poisoning. All providers have these instructions for their users which are easy to follow.

Conclusion

In this article, we discussed 5 ways to optimize the performance of your VPN. VPNs are only as useful as you let them be. While they certainly help in protecting your data and identity while you are online, they should not hamper your internet experience. Using the methods provided above, you can make sure that that does not happen.